Sturgeons are considered as living fossils and have very high evolutionary, economical and conservation values. The multiploidy of sturgeon that has been caused by chromosome duplication may lead to the emergence of new microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in the ploidy and physiological processes. In the present study, we performed the first sturgeon miRNAs analysis by RNA-seq high-throughput sequencin...

Russian ( ), Persian ( ) and Siberian ( Acipenser gueldenstaedtii A. persicus A. ) sturgeons are closely related ‘Ponto-Caspian’ species. Investigation of baerii their population structure is an important problem, the solution of which determines measures for conservation of these species. According to previous studies, ‘baerii-like’ mitochondrial genotypes were found in the Caspian Sea among 3...

The anadromous Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) is endangered and listed among the first class of protected animals in China. The possible causes for the decline of this species are the effects of synthetic chemicals, and loss of critical habitat. Chinese sturgeon in the Yangtze River have accumulated triphenyltin (TPT) to 31-128 ng/g wet weigh (ww) in liver, which is greater than the conc...

Bycatch of protected species in commercial fishing operations is a primary concern to fishery managers because it threatens the conservation, protection, and recovery of fragile species, such as the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus). One potential solution to reduce the risk associated with commercial fishing operations is to design commercial fishing gear that is more selecti...

The swimming performance of hatchery-reared. juvenile shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus plarorynchus and pallld sturgeon S. albus was studied in a laboratory swim tunnel at 20°C and 1O0C. The mean 30-min critical swimming speed was not significantly different between species at either temperature (36.9 crd s for shovelnose sturgeon and 35.9 cm/s for pallid utur-geon at 20°C. 19.4 cmls for shov...

Calcium regulation in sturgeon is of special interest because they are a representative of the ancient fishes possessing mainly cartilaginous skeletons and a supposedly low calcium demand. The present study aimed to characterize the effect of a chronic absence of dietary calcium and the effect of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrPA) (1-34) (7) on calcium balance in juvenile sturgeon (Ac...

Acipenser stellatus (stellate sturgeon) represents a sturgeon species of great importance for the scientific community and fishermen that has been intensively captured for decades. Besides of overfishing and poaching, their reproduction sites have been destroyed and their natural habitats were affected by pollution. In consequence, wild populations of stellate sturgeon have decreased dramatical...

Exposure to chemical contaminants is often invoked to explain recruitment failures to populations of sturgeon worldwide, but there is little empirical evidence to support the idea that young sturgeon are sensitive at environmentally relevant concentrations. The authors used shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostum) and Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) as models to investigate the sensi...

Legally certified sturgeon fisheries require population protection and conservation methods, including DNA tests to identify the source of valuable sturgeon roe. However, the available genetic data are insufficient to distinguish between different sturgeon populations, and are even unable to distinguish between some species. We performed high-throughput single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-geno...

The AHR pathway activates transcription of CYP1A and mediates most toxic responses from exposure to halogenated aromatic hydrocarbon contaminants such as PCBs and PCDD/Fs. Therefore, expression of CYP1A is predictive of most higher level toxic responses from these chemicals. To date, no study had developed an assay to quantify CYP1A expression in any sturgeon species. We addressed this deficien...